A man convicted of a brutal knife attack on a bartender outside his home was jailed for ten years yesterday.

Acting Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe said Alex Wolffe, 20, had shown no remorse for the attempted robbery of Borislav Angelov, who was stabbed more than a dozen times as his wife watched from the house.

He said: “The sheer number of times the victim was stabbed, combined with the words and actions of the defendant who brandished what appeared to be a gun, puts the case on the borderline of being attempted murder.”

Mr Justice Wolffe was speaking after Wolffe, 20, was convicted of wounding Mr Angelov with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on October 23 last year. Wolffe was also convicted of attempted robbery and two charges of intimidation.

Mr Justice Wolffe said: “It’s clear from the victim impact statements that what happened to them was horrendous and words cannot convey how they were feeling on October 23, or how they have felt since.

“No matter what the amount of time that has elapsed, they will probably never forget that dreadful night.”

He sentenced Wolffe to ten years behind bars for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The judge further sentenced the defendant to five years for the attempted robbery, and 12 months each on the two counts of intimidation.

He ordered the sentences to run concurrently, with time in custody also taken into account. Prosecutors told the court the defendant and an unidentified man, who were on a motorbike, chased Mr Angelov’s motorbike along Harbour Road, Paget, as he returned home from work in Dockyard after midnight.

The two attacked Mr Angelov on his lawn, but Mr Angelov fought back and the fight moved onto his patio, where one of the men stabbed Mr Angelov 13 times.

The attack ended only after Mr Angelov’s wife Deborah turned on the patio lights and the men fled.

Mr Angelov said one of his attackers pointed what appeared to be a gun at him as they ran and warned him not to move or he would be shot.

A witness, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, earlier told the court that Wolffe confessed he was involved in the attack while they were both in Westgate prison.

The witness added that Wolffe said he had suffered an injury to his hand as he tried to stop his accomplice’s attack on Mr Angelov.

But the defendant in court denied any involvement in the incident and insisted he had not been near the Harbour Road area on the night of the attack.

Larissa Burgess, for the Crown, said Wolffe had “terrorised members of the public” in an act of “monstrous social deviance”.

She suggested a sentence of between ten and twelve years was appropriate given the serious injuries suffered by Mr Angelov.

The court also heard victim impact statements from Mr Angelov and his wife, Deborah, who said the attack has had a lasting impact on their lives.

Mr Angelov said: “Life since that day has never been the same. I have constant pain on one side of my body, I have no feeling on the other side.

“I have constant flashbacks of the incident and a feeling of warm blood running down by back and legs and into my shoes and screaming for my wife that I am going to die and I love her.

“I find myself constantly looking over my shoulder and wondering what the person behind me is up to. It is no way to live life.”

He added: “Every day I look in the mirror and see the scars. My wife has told me not to take off my shirt around her because she cannot bear to see them.”

Ms Angelov said in a written statement that she had seen a “sea of red” on the couple’s patio when she turned on the lights.

She said: “This was an image that will never go away for the rest of my life.

“I can still hear the scraping of the furniture on the patio and him screaming for me to call the police.”

Susan Mulligan, for Wolffe, said that her client maintained his innocence and would appeal the conviction.

She added that the sentence suggested by the Crown was excessive given the defendant’s clean record, youth and a number of letters that highlighted his good character.

Ms Mulligan said: “People are shocked. They are saying that they cannot believe that he could have done anything like this.”

She asked the court not to deliver a sentence that would “crush” him and instead suggested three years in prison, followed by a long probation period and a community service order.

Ms Mulligan also said that, according to the Crown’s case, Wolffe had injured his hand in an attempt to stop his accomplice from stabbing Mr Angelov.

But Ms Burgess said the Crown’s case was that he only did so after Mrs Angelov had turned on the porch lights.

She added: “I don’t think it’s fair to say he was a good Samaritan after 13 stabs.”

Mr Justice Wolffe said it was “neither here nor there” if the defendant had attempted to stop the attack.

Detective Sergeant Jason Smith said the attack was an outrage and that police were still on the hunt for the other man involved.

He added: “The investigation is still open, and for that reason we continue to make our appeal for members of the public who do have information that might be able to assist us bring the second perpetrator to justice to come forward.”

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